Julia Papamastou

A bloody battle, a tragic fight. Words, thoughts, phrases like these come about as I step enter Gettysburg. Who has the grass here taken with it, down below our world? How many lives lost here? We may never truly know, and a flood of negative and positive emotions effect me as I stepped down onto the field. The bloodshed that occurred here horrifies those today, but affected the soldiers differently. Fighting for honor, valiance, and freedom, they charged at each other in order to defend the ideals they so believed in, but their deaths for their respective sides reflect the horrors and sadness of war. The losses of family and the pain of those left behind finds itself to me and I believe that I have lost something too. Their pain and valiance converges into one as I begin to take a walk. But as the sun rises over Gettysburg and the dewy grass crunches beneath my feet, it seems to deceive me. This beautiful, wide and vast space could not have been the place where all those perished. I take a seat, attempting to feel the grass, and feel the losses that those have suffered. I place myself in the action, hearing the bullets fly and bodies fall as I become more and more upset, feeling the loss. This profound compilation of feelings as my family and I maneuvered Gettysburg, dealing with the frustration and sadness the place evokes. We slowly walked through, letting the atmosphere truly affect us. The atrocities committed here come back to us as we feel for those who lost lives. The battle of Gettysburg and repercussions.
Julia Papamastou